Over In An Instant
by Artemis Fowl II
Summary: A dark stranger comes to the door of the funbari inn and brings trouble in his wake! Strong language used in parts, I suck at summaries, read and review flames welcome but only on good basis, dedicated to sk8erneko! :COMPLETE: was english coursework


A/N hello everyone. I thought I would post this, it is my creative writing coursework module but I think it was good so have posted it as a shaman king story :) enjoy!

Over in an instant.

By general observation board

Based on shaman king

All characters are copyrighted to their respective owners, no copyright infringement intended.

Dedicated to sk8er-neko

Beta'd by 4gVn SoUl (hey! I'm advertising here :) looking for beta reading jobs, contact me to apply!

The darkness closed in. I could hear her screaming. I knew what I had to do and yet, I failed. My Anna. Gone. Her life. Over in an instant.

Yoh sat up and realised that he had been dreaming. His hair sat up in huge spikes just like usual and he got out of bed to start the day. _Just another boring day after the tournament._ Thought Yoh. _The tournament… damn! Why can't I get it off of my mind? _

The training

Anna

The tournament

Anna

The last fight

Anna

After the tournament. The relief. The joy. All alive. Anna. "Thank you Yoh." And those words were all the reward I needed.

_But why now? _He thought, _I haven't thought about it for months…_

The tournament Yoh was talking about was the **shaman tournament**. It was where hundreds of shaman (people who could control spirits to give themselves extra powers and abilities) cam to fight, the winner would become the SHAMAN KING, the greatest shaman in the world, and would join the great spirits in the fifth dimensions to rule over the normal and spirit worlds. Everyone wanted the position but Yoh had won the fights, eventually beating Hao, his life long foe and tormentor and taken the crown. Yoh had decided to stay on earth and live with Anna and his friends until he had to leave, so he would get to still have some normal time. As it was Yoh would stop showing signs of age at around 20, until he was nearly 300, then it would be time for him to choose a successor using any means he wanted. Only Anna could come with him.

_But why the dreams? Miko said everything happens for a reason, so what do my dreams mean? I am no stranger to death as I deal with death and the next stages all the time, but why is hers such a big blow? Well when I think about it, it's quite obvious. I…_

"Yoh! Get my breakfast here now!" screamed a voice. With a start Yoh realised he had been cooking the food for too long. He pulled it out and only just saved it, placed it on a plate and ran it out to Anna.

Yep, just another day.

Hao arrive at the door. A smile spread across his face and he knocked three times before collapsing on the floor. His blood soaked garments falling in a swirl around him and the ground already soaking up his free flowing blood. Yoh came and answered the door, slowly opening it and revealing Hao lying there. Yoh rushed to his side, checked his pulse and called Ren Tao, and Horo Horo to take Hao inside. As the two got him through the door a mob of about 20 people ran through the funbari gates.

"Did you do this to Hao?" Yoh asked in a voice that said the wrong answer could be fatal. A voice that was barely more then a whisper but commanded everyone's attention. A voice no kid should have.

"Yeah now fuck off you little shit so we can finish the job!" the one at the front shouted.

Yoh examined him and found that he was the muscle type, no brains, only brawn but wouldn't back down if his mates were watching.

"Why should Hao die?" said Yoh in the same tone of voice.

"He owes us money pure and simple, he can't pay, and we extract the price by other means." Said the leader smirking and revealing two gold teeth, "now get out of the way so we can finish him and go home".

"And who is going to make me hey? Little old you? I think not!" said Yoh getting pissed of by the freaks who tried to challenge the shaman king. And suddenly from thin air came a sword. It was unlike any the gang had seen before, long, sleek yet not quite a rapier and the blade looked strange and like it didn't occupy the mere 3 dimensions that they all did.

"Whoa shit! Where the fuck did that come from!" shouted one of the gang.

"Does it really matter, the basterd has a little sword, we have fucking guns! Or did you forget that? Now shoot him so we can get on with this." Shouted the leader to his gang, getting annoyed with the little brat who thought he could mess with the silver rhythm gang.

And suddenly the boy was everywhere. He jumped to one guy and cut his arm off at the shoulder, ran over to three more in a blink of the eye and decapitated them, slowly making his way round the gang leaving a trail of body bits and blood everywhere he went. And then he was behind the leader pressing the unreal blade to his throat.

"How much?" said Yoh, hi voice as unreal as the sword, like two people saying the same words at the same time.

"1 million yen!" said the leader, trying to move his neck as little as possible before he ended up headless.

"Here you go" said Yoh, dropping a bag next to the man and stepping back, 4 metres, to the porch? In one step? This house was creepy. The leader grabbed the armless men (he's 'armless! sorry had to be said!) and ran for it with the bag.

Yoh sagged before a ghostly glow shone from him and another man came away, his man was sort of there, but not there. He was, against all reason, a ghost. Amidamaru, samurai and personal assassin to the fourth king of china, man his bones rest peacefully, and Yoh Asakuras spiritual guardian.

"Well that could have gone better." Remarked Amidamaru.

"Yes" said Yoh plainly.

_A million yen, Hao what are you doing?_

Yoh took Hao inside and lay him down next to the fire. Anna came out of the kitchen and Yoh gave her a questioning look to which Anna nodded, they both knew Hao's significance. Even though Hao had tried to kill Yoh twice and had set up the whole Shaman tournament so they he could merge himself with Yoh and wipe out the human race who had shunned him as a child. Anna had dragged Yoh back and he had won, but only barely.

_And here he is_ thought Yoh. _Great_.

And Yoh went to bed.

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The first time Yoh slept with Anna was six years ago when he was ten. He had been freezing cold and asked is he could sleep with Anna to keep him warm, she had told him to go away and he went back to bed feeling sad and cold. Five minuets later Anna had come into his room and wordlessly got into bed next to him. He shuffled over to make more room for her and they fell asleep.

Most people would object to this but Anna and Yoh were in fact engaged. They had an arranged marriage for the age of six and had been living together and preparing for the tournament.

The other big objection was that Yoh could take advantage of Anna but that was impossible. For a start Yoh would never force Anna into anything she didn't want, and secondly she wouldn't let him.

Yoh got up and dressed, washed himself and started to get the house ready for his Anna. _It feels so good saying MY Anna, maybe I am getting attached to her after all… the ice queen._ Everyone called Anna the ice queen as she was famous for never showing any emotion, but Yoh knew this was just a front. Yoh had personally seen Anna break down a couple of time before and when she did, it was clear why she hid her emotions. Her parents had died in front of her when she was little and she had never really gotten over it. _But she has friends to help her now_ Yoh thought, and heard Anna getting up. _Here we go again!_

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As Yoh was cooking he heard a slight groan from the living room. He put down the cooked meal on some plates and left them in the microwave to keep warm before walking into the room and going to Hao.

The night before Yoh had bandaged Hao's arm and his side where he had been cut, but Hao hadn't moved and only a weak pulse indicated that he was alive. Suddenly he jumped up and the Spirit Of Fire, who was his guardian spirit, flew up around him and smashed through the roof. Standing atop his colossal spirit, Hoa looked down through the hole and saw Yoh standing there looking up. Immediately the spirit dissipated leaving Hoa standing on the floor looking at Yoh. They stared at each other for a while before Yoh pointed up at the hole.

"Recon you can fix that now?" he asked rhetorically.

"Sure I can! It's the least I can do to my gracious host!" he said and clapped. The Spirit Of Fire appeared only much smaller, picked up the rubble and held it to the roof whilst is slowly melted, then once it was in place he froze it again.

"Thanks Hao." Said Yoh sarcastically

"Oh so are we on first name terms now?" said Hao mockingly.

"Yeah something I want to ask you though Hao, why the hell do you owe the silver rhythm gang a million yen?" said Yoh his voice betraying his calm features.

"Look Yoh it's nothing to worry about. You should just make Anna her breakfast and then give me a hand to leave." Said Hao.

Yoh sighed, "Look Hao, you can't go anywhere with that gash on your side, why don't you sit here for a while."

Hao looked worried for a minute before saying "No Yoh I really can't stay here, you will regret it."

"What another plan to kill me?"

"Not my plan no"

"What do you mean? There is a plan to kill me? What are you into now Hao?" said Yoh his voice still staying at the same level but Hao could tell there was something else just waiting to get out and scream really loud.

"Look Yoh there is nothing involving you going on here, but unless I leave it will involve you." Said Hao trying to calm Yoh down.

"That money wasn't for a bet was it? You're in trouble. Tell me Hao and we can all help." And Hao knew that you would help.

"O.k. it all started a couple of months ago. I worked in the herbology center down the street when old Jansen passed away. It said in his will that I should take over the store but that I would have some trouble and that I shouldn't be intimidated. The next day I got a letter that said unless I closed the store I would be found and killed, they didn't want some freak magic shop on the street anymore. So I did what Jansen told me and ignored it but it got worse.

"I started to get phone calls and emails until finally someone threw a brick thought the window and set light to Jansons cat. That was the last straw and I started to put up wards around the shop. It all stopped for a while then they found a way through my wards and came into the shop. The knocked me out and started beating me up before one of my friends phoned the police. The gang ran so I started to get out of the house before they came back. The only place I could think of was here. Sorry to bring you into all of this. That money wasn't a bet; it was 'protection' money. They wanted a million yen for them to leave me alone for the month. That's my story and why I have to leave, they know where you are and they will get you."

"But I killed them all when they came round, including the leader" said Yoh.

"I doubt he was the leader. To get past Hao's wards would take a powerful shaman and an intelligent mind, now that the muscle is out of the way the intelligence will take over." Said a voice by the door. Anna stepped into the living room and immediately the others followed. "Now… Ren and Horo Horo! You will organise the defences, chocolove, the traps. Pirika? Make some wards but talk to Hao first and make your different and complex, not strong complex! We want them to have a hard time getting in but put a strong one round the house and everyone will put their furyoku into it every half hour. That will hold them for awhile. Tamao I want you to try and look into the future and get some useful information, I will get some extra spirit friends and bind them to items around the garden, Hao rest and Yoh will oversee everything else but first make my breakfast."

"In the microwave Anna" sighed Yoh and everyone set off to work.

Over the course of the next week they worked non stop (except for sleep) and the defences were good. There were spirits trapped in containers that were packed and attacked to trip wires, so if the wire was pulled even a little bit, it released 20 very pissed of spirits at them. There was a tar pit, concealed under a tree, so at night it was invisible. Ren had been having an evil moment and put poisoned barbed wire through the hedges and Horo Horo had wired certain paving stones to the national grid, and kept changing them so only the people in the house knew how to get across the garden because the gravel was now lightly sprinkled on a bedding of lava, courtesy of Hao, and was impossible to go more than three steps on. The wards were the hardest Yoh had even encountered until Pirika gave him the key signature (a power type you radiate so the barriers let you through) as he was the one who did the shopping. The ward round the house was impossible to break through as it had everyone's signatures in it and the only way through would be the over power it, and with everyone regularly powering it up that would be hard. The best part though had to be chocolove idea. He had finished the traps (tar pits, humorous tilting slabs and rigging the roves and fences) had built a guard tower. It was 20 feet tall and armoured with the main house ward, steel plating, some more trapped spirits, and chocoloves speciality. Being born in the jungles in Africa he had figured out a spirit control that kept out bugs, water, birds or anything he wanted. He had applied it to the tower with 13 spirits (each from the 13h layer of the 13th hell from the year 1313, so they were evil as hell and deadly) and then put his own spirit in form around the house and everyone so the spirits couldn't attack them. None of this would pose big threat to a finalist shaman but eight shamans who all made it the final fights would pose a very big threat. And after a week of waiting, planning strategies, building, and worrying they came.

I think now would be a good time to introduce myself. I am silver. I am one of the shaman king's personal guards but also his friend and advisor. I can look into the future and change it but cannot tell the shaman king anything about it whilst he still remains on earth or any other primary dimensions. I know everything there is to know about shamans and am a very powerful shaman myself. I advise and help out with the tournaments and I chronicle all shaman fights. This was going to be a big fight and I could only predict one possible outcome where everyone survived, hundreds where they fail and a handful where most of them win. Fate has a sense of humour though and the most likely one would be the one where they win, it always happens that way. So I shall observe and record what I see. The next thing I shall write is 'and so they came'. I wonder how long I will have to wait before I have to write that. Not long. And so they came…

It was a bloody battle. People first walked along the gravel but when they started melting they stopped and tried the fences, but when their hands were ripped to shreds they tried the bushes, but when they were poisoned they tried the main path. As they walked up it one got electrocute, they moved on and ran into the first ward. One stepped forwards and raised their hand, their face going blank as they searched for they key. 30 seconds later it was gone and they advanced. They didn't trip the wire, or fall into the tar and only one person slipped off the roof into the bushes. After he stopped screaming they advanced and the shaman stepped forwards and started feeding his furyoku into the ward until it glowed with power and then took it all back. The sudden loss of power made the ward sag until it touched the top of the guard tower and vanished. Then he started on towards the porch. Yoh appeared and looked the shaman straight in the eye and she stared back. The pure hatred in her eyes was evident and the was she held herself gave the impression she was use to giving orders, the way she look gave the impression she was used to having them followed first time without mistakes. Then Yoh's friends appeared around him and all hell broke loose.

Meanwhile…

Yoh watched the gang try to walk across the gravel and they melted, he heard them cross the fence, then the bushes. He kept his attention focused on the one bead of power in the centre of the gang and when they crossed the stones he knew they could sense him. He saw the shaman break the wards and saw a solitary figure run across the roof of the inn, he threw his sword and the man fell into the bushes. Yoh heard his blood curdling screams fade, then told Hao to stay on the tower (this is because Hao was the weakest and the only one able to throw fire) and then jumped off the tower. He landed in front of the shaman and looked the shaman straight in the eye and she stared back. The pure hatred in her eyes was evident and the was she held herself gave the impression she was use to giving orders, the way she look gave the impression she was used to having them followed first time without mistakes. Then Yoh's friends jumped and landed around him and all hell broke loose.

Yoh ran at the shaman who jumped back and landed behind the gang, who promptly ran at Yoh and his friends in a mad frenzy. The men all fell at one point in the battle. Some were run through, others decapitated, and a couple quartered. Hao rained fire with deadly accuracy and Anna woke the spirits in the grounds. The shaman stood at the back and used her spirit control to take out all the spirits Anna sent at her then turned her attention to the tower Hao was in. She focused and sent out a wave of power which was negated by the shields and dispelled. She thought for a moment and then sent out three waves of power, each more powerful than the last. The first slammed into the tower and it shook violently. The second ripped the shields apart and the third would have killed Hao if chocolove hadn't run straight up the tower and thrown him off.

Unfortunately chocolove was not as lucky. It was a one in a million chance that chocolove would escape and everyone knows that one in a million chances always succeed, but if they always succeed then it wouldn't be a one in a million chance. So chocolove e was hit by a wave that would vaporise a small moon and died instantly. If he didn't then landing on the fence would have killed him, and rolling into the magma would have made sure of it.

"You bitch!" shouted Yoh and ran at her, slicing and dicing anyone in his way. Hao got up shakily and then ran at her as well and they both engaged her in a fierce fight that would have left a normal person exhausted in seconds. They spun, slashed and parried and such speeds it was hard to be sure who was fighting who and who was winning. Suddenly in a flash of light Hao shot out from the fray and hit a wall with a sickening thump. Yoh kept fighting but he could feel his furyoku being slowly used up. _I have to end this now! Amidamaru into the sword! Into the kohatsu! Celestial slash! _

Yoh's spirit guardian shifted into a ball and jumped into the sword making it bigger and glow more, then into a short stone sword in Yoh's other hand and made it huge and combine with Yoh's first sword, then Yoh hit the ground and a line of pale blue light tore across the ground and slammed into the mysterious attacker making her slam into the wall next to Hao, but where as Hao had fallen unconscious this lady just stood up, made a gesture and vanished.

Yoh ran to Hao's side and pulled him upright. He checked his pulse and found it to be very faint, but still there. Hao stirred slightly and woke up. He coughed a couple of time, blood coming up. "Who the hell was she Hao," asked Yoh, "and why was she attacking you?"

"Well I guess she wanted revenge for what I tried to do for you in the tournament, mum never liked me much. Thanks for everything Yoh." He said before coughing again and finally laying still. Yoh closed his eyes and laid him back before checking everyone else was o.k.

Everyone had some small cuts and bruises but the most serious injury was Horo Horo who had a broken arm. They had won the fight, they wouldn't be bothered again but no one felt like celebrating. They happy feeling of winning seemed kind of sick when they thought that Chocolove and Hao had died.

To this day, Yoh and Anna's children own funbari inn. They have kept it immaculate even though Yoh and Anna have gone to the 5th dimensions to rule the spirits and Ren, Horo Horo, Pirika and Tamao have moved to a retirement home. If you walked to the back garden, past the long cooled magma flooring, past the dried up tar pits, and past the funbari inn you would end up in the back gardens where there are two gravestones. They say:

Chocolove

Dear friend

Hero

Died before his time

He will be missed

His life was over in an instant

And

Hao

Friend

Hero

Brother

His life was over in an instant

I will remember you Hao

Yoh Asakura


End file.
